The South African Reserve Bank announced this past weekend that due to severe liquidity issues, VBS Mutual Bank would be placed under curatorship.

Curatorship is a mechanism in the South African Bank Act which allows the government to take over administrative control of a failing financial institution to try and reverse its fortunes and bring it back to a functioning business.

In VBS’s case, the fault came through failure by the bank’s management to align the business with its sudden rate of growth. The SARB said the bank made incredibly risky moves, particularly around using short-term municipal deposits as a base for long-term lending.

When the municipalities came to withdraw their funds, the bank did not have the funds to pay them.

This case of “bad management and liquidity problems” is a recurring theme among South Africa’s failed banks. A recent paper published by the University of Pretoria outlined all the cases of failed banks in the country since 1990 – showing 12 (13 including VBS) banks that were placed under curatorship, three of which would ultimately be liquidated.

The table below outlines all the banks that have gone into liquidation over the past 30 years:

According to the research paper, even though the majority of the banks ultimately resolved their liquidity problems, the way in which this was done – arrangements, transferring assets, mergers etc – often resulted in the banks ‘shutting down’ in one way or another.

As a result of various deals, sell-off and mergers, over 20 banks have been deregistered in South Africa since 1990. These are: